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Achievement of the Planetary Defense Investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission
Buratti, Bonnie J.; Kolokolova, Ludmilla; Zinzi, Angelo +126 more
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the mission's Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DART's achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos n…
The Dynamical State of the Didymos System before and after the DART Impact
Hamilton, Douglas P.; Tanga, Paolo; Gramigna, Edoardo +50 more
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the natural satellite of (65803) Didymos, on 2022 September 26, as a first successful test of kinetic impactor technology for deflecting a potentially hazardous object in space. The experiment resulted in a small change to the dynamical state of the Didymos system consis…
Beyond Point Masses. III. Detecting Haumea's Nonspherical Gravitational Field
Grundy, Will M.; Oldroyd, William J.; Proudfoot, Benjamin C. N. +3 more
The dwarf planet Haumea is one of the most compelling trans-Neptunian objects to study, hosting two small, dynamically interacting satellites, a family of nearby spectrally unique objects, and a ring system. Haumea itself is extremely oblate due to its 3.9 hr rotation period. Understanding the orbits of Haumea's satellites, named Hi'iaka and Namak…
Three-dimensional Atmospheric Dynamics of Jupiter from Ground-based Doppler Imaging Spectroscopy in the Visible
Wong, Michael H.; Izumiura, Hideyuki; Sato, Bun'ei +25 more
We present three-dimensional (3D) maps of Jupiter's atmospheric circulation at cloud-top level from Doppler-imaging data obtained in the visible domain with JIVE, the second node of the JOVIAL network, which is mounted on the Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, New Mexico. We report on 12 nights of observations between 2018 May 4 and May 30, represen…
DART Impact Ejecta Plume Evolution: Implications for Dimorphos
Pajola, M.; Bertini, I.; Cremonese, G. +29 more
The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft impacted the moon Dimorphos of the [65803] Didymos binary system and changed the binary orbit period, demonstrating asteroid deflection by a kinetic impact and indicating that more momentum was transferred to Dimorphos by escaping impact ejecta than was incident with DART. Images of the D…
On the Fate of Slow Boulders Ejected after DART Impact on Dimorphos
Moreno, Fernando; Campo Bagatin, Adriano; Tancredi, Gonzalo
On 2022 September 26 23:14 UT, the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft successfully impacted Dimorphos, the secondary component of the binary (65803) Didymos system, demonstrating asteroid orbit deflection for the first time. A large amount of debris, consisting of a wide size–frequency distribution of particulates (from micron-sized …
The New Horizons Extended Mission Target: Arrokoth Search and Discovery
Fabbro, S.; Stern, S. Alan; Weaver, Harold A. +37 more
Following the Pluto flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft, the mission provided a unique opportunity to explore the Kuiper Belt in situ. The possibility existed to fly by a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), as well as to observe additional objects at distances closer than are feasible from Earth-orbit facilities. However, at the time of launch no KBOs were…
A Detailed Study of Jupiter's Great Red Spot over a 90-day Oscillation Cycle
Wong, Michael H.; Irwin, Patrick G. J.; Simon, Amy A. +1 more
Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is known to exhibit oscillations in its westward drift with a 90-day period. The GRS was observed with the Hubble Space Telescope on eight dates over a single oscillation cycle in 2023 December to 2024 March to search for correlations in its physical characteristics over that time. Measured longitudinal positions are…
Detection of Close Kuiper Belt Binaries with HST WFC3
Porter, Simon B.; Verbiscer, Anne J.; Noll, Keith S. +3 more
Binaries in the Kuiper Belt are common. Here we present our analysis of the Solar System Origins Legacy Survey (SSOLS) to show that using a point-spread function (PSF)-fitting method can roughly double the number of binaries identified in that data set. Out of 198 Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) observed by SSOLS, we find 23 to be visually separated bi…
Hunting for Hydrated Minerals on Trans-Neptunian Objects
Fraser, Wesley C.; Puzia, Thomas H.; Seccull, Tom +1 more
We present new optical reflectance spectra of three potentially silicate-rich trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). These spectra were obtained with the aim of confirming past hints and detections of λ ∼ 0.7 µm absorption features associated with the presence of iron-bearing phyllosilicates. Our new spectrum of 120216 (2004 EW95) presen…